


Stairs - Tashigi's POV

by Einfach_Antonia



Category: One Piece
Genre: Chaos, F/M, Pure Chaos, and not so much mayhem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:02:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24479911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Einfach_Antonia/pseuds/Einfach_Antonia
Summary: This is my One Shot "Stairs" out of Tashigi's perspective.
Relationships: Roronoa Zoro & Tashigi, Roronoa Zoro/Tashigi
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30





	Stairs - Tashigi's POV

**Author's Note:**

> Hello once again :) Well... some of you wanted to read "Stairs" out of Tashigis perspective. So here you go, I hope I did the original one justice though...

**Stais – Tashigi POV**

"STOP! You are under arrest!"  
"TASHIGI! STOP IT!"  
But Tashigi did not stop. She heard Smoker's order pretty clearly, she also heard him cursing about what a stupid woman she was. But she did not care. They needed to get this Kaito Akuno. Fast.

Sword drawn and ready to fight she was chasing after the fleeing. Not wasting any thought about the rest of her unit. Eyes fixed on the brown-haired man running in front of her. Only one mission on her mind:  
Capture him.

They needed him. She could not let him get away. Her unit was especially ordered to Lanholm Skerry and they were ordered not to leave until Kaito Akuno was under arrest. He was a necessity on their way to stop human trafficking. Tashigi would rather die than to let him get away.

Kaito was now running down the stairs of one of the many bridges on the island, Tashigi was on his heels. Determined to get him. This determination paired with her usual clumsiness lead her to missing a step. She should have expected it, she should have known it, she knew herself. However, whenever she had her eyes set on a escaping criminal, she tend to forget her usual clumsiness.

Tashigi felt herself tripping and instantly let go of Shigure. It hurt her soul to hear it clattering down the stairs but not for long. She felt herself loosing her balance and crushing down headfirst. The last thing she heard was Smoker yelling her name.

* * *

"Do you actually know how lucky you are? Such a fall down the stairs… you could have easily broken your neck and all you got was a sprayed ankle."  
Tashigi just smiled at the doctor. She could feel the intimidating aura from her Vice Admiral radiating at her from the corner of the room. He was mad at her and she deserved it.

She disobeyed his order, fell down the stairs, got herself injured and to make things perfect: Kaito Akuno had been able to flee from the island.  
"I am sorry," she said as soon as the doctor left the room. Smoker took his time, just starring at her.

Then he sighed and left the corner.  
"You are one of the stupidest women I ever met," he started and Tashigi felt tears pricking at her eyes. "But… with your stupid action you even did us a favor."  
"I did what?"  
"I spoke to the Headquarters and they gave us new orders."

Tashigi straightened herself and listened carefully.  
"The cover story of tomorrows newspaper will be… that you died because of your fall."  
"WHAT?!"  
Eyes wide she looked at Smoker. Did he really just said what she thought he had?  
"I did not know you were deaf too."

She pouted at him. But what did she expect while talking to Smoker?  
"If Kaito thinks you died in his pursuit, he will run straight to his daddy for help. And that`s when we get them both."  
Yeah… that made sense. They never really wanted Kaito anyway, they were always after his father; Kaito was just a blender, a pretender.

"What will I do in the meantime?", she asked with a sigh.  
"We'll put you up in a hotel, you'll stay there until we arrest these two."  
Made sense too. It would be a bad idea to proclaim her death in the newspaper and meanwhile she was walking around happily.  
"Can I contact my parents?"  
They read the newspaper too, especially for her. Every article in which she was mentioned was cut out and pasted into an album.

Smoker shook his head.  
"No. From today on you are not allowed to communicate with anyone but me. Headquarters already sent an undercover agent their way to let them know. So, they won't freak out or something stupid like that."  
"Good."  
Not to think what her parents would do, if they really thought she died.

* * *

How could you be so bored?, Tashigi thought while blowing her bangs out of her eyes. It's been two weeks since the Navy announced her "death" and since then she had nothing else to do than to stay in this little hotel room.

As she tipped her chair, she looked at the ceiling. Never in her life had she been so freaking bored. Since she joined the Navy more than ten years ago there had never again been something quite like boredom. She was either always training or always on a ship.

If she at least could leave the hotel, but noooooo. Officially she was dead. She missed going out for walks, she missed a proper training session with Shigure, she missed human interaction.

Tashigi was not allowed to talk to anyone but Smoker. Not even to the old grumpy hotel owner, who was a retired Marine and who brought her three meals every day. And she could count Smoker's calls on one hand.  
"I am sooo bored!", she yelled, chair still tipped.

"Purururu! Purururu! Purururu!"  
"WOAH!"  
With a loud bang she fell over with her chair and landed painfully on the floor.  
"Ouch."  
"Purururu! Purururu! Purururu!"  
Oh, yeah…

Body still aching she got up and reached for the den den mushi. This could only be Smoker. She didn't even have the receiver all the way to her ear when he already spoke:  
"What took you so long?"  
"I…," she started while cracking her still hurting back.  
"You fell over with your chair, didn't you?", he asked.  
"Eh… yeah."  
Denial was pointless, Smoker knew her too well.

"Anyway… I just got a visit from your boyfriend."  
Tashigi blinked. Boyfriend?  
"Sir, I don't have a boyfriend."  
Not that she was aware of. But maybe she misunderstood someone again and agreed to something she did not intended to. Like this one time she agreed to this one Price who wanted to invite her for dinner, but that was just his country's way of proposing. Clearing that up had been embarrassing.

"I know he is not your boyfriend, but he behaves like he is," Smoker interrupted her thoughts.  
"Who?"  
"That brat Roronoa."  
"WHAT?"  
Startled Tashigi starred at the den den mushi. Roronoa like in Roronoa Zoro?  
"What… he.. was… ehh… why?"

"He read about your death, marched into my office like he owned that place and demanded to know all the details and why you fell down those stairs."  
Tashigi was speechless and did not really know what to say…  
"What did you say?"  
"The truth. You ran after a criminal and you tripped."  
Obviously.  
"But why did he want to know?", she asked confused.

Smoker just grunted.  
"As if I know. But he wanted to have your sword."  
Confusion never stopped when it came to Roronoa Zoro and again Tashigi was speechless. He had wanted her sword? Why?  
"I… don't understand," she said.  
"Me neither. Talk to you soon."  
And with that Smoker hang up. Leaving Tashigi in total confusion, but well at least her day wasn't boring anymore, right?

* * *

Horrified Tashigi looked at the newspaper, read the article for a second time, a third time.  
What the hell was Roronoa doing? What was he thinking? WHY was he raiding islands and beating people up?  
Well… she knew why he was doing it. He shouted it out every time he started a fight; he did it because she supposedly died a few weeks ago. But WHY?

Smoker's last call was two weeks ago. Two weeks Tashigi had spent wrecking her brain for a logical answer for Roronoa's current behavior but she could not come up with something.

It seemed like her "death" triggered something in him, that made him do all this stupid and crazy shit. But it seemed all so irrational to her. She understood it a little bit, her passing would not leave him totally unbothered, but he was causing so much mayhem! Tashigi would never had expected him to… it wasn't for the fact that they were friends, or anything, right?

Because they weren't. They were… civil, at most. Even though sometimes, she wished that they could be more, but…  
The ringing of the den den mushi saved her from continuing that thought any further.  
"I read it," she said instead of a greeting.  
"Get your ass over here!", Smoker yelled at her.

"Excuse me?"  
Wasn't she supposed to lay low for at least another week?  
"I said: GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!"  
"Sir, yes, Sir!"  
Tashigi even saluted after Smoker yelled at her, even though he could not see it.  
"A ship will pick you up in an hour!"  
And again he simply hung up on her.

* * *

It was a strange feeling being back in a marine base, being back with Smoker after weeks of her being alone in a small hotel room. But now she was sitting across from her Vice Admiral in his temporary office and he was starring at her like everything bad in the world was her fault.

They were waiting for a call from some of their superiors, the reason Smoker called her back to his side. Apparently they were blamed for Roronoa's actions. Like she could do anything about it. It wasn't her idea to pretend she was dead, after all. And never in her life did she expect Roronoa to go crazy like that.

"Purururu! Pururu…"  
Without breaking eye contact with her Smoker picked up the receiver.  
"Here Smoker."  
"He is causing mayhem, Vice Admiral", came the stern voice of one of their Superiors over the den den mushi. Tashigi wasn't sure which one it was.  
"I am highly aware of that," Smoker answered. His eyes never leaving hers.  
"You need to stop that, immediately!", another voice ordered.

It was always a bad sign when Smoker ran his fingers through his hair. Most of the time he was annoyed when he did it, and annoyed was his preliminary stage of freaking out.  
"I am not responsible for that pirate."  
"Neither am I," Tashigi whispered, after Smoker gave her a meaningful look.

"That pirate is doing this because of the death of your Captain, so, yes indeed, you are responsible for him!"  
"Stop him, Vice Admiral!"  
And with that the line went dead. Tashigi knew him well enough to know, that it probably took all in Smoker not to bang his head on his desk. Instead he looked at her again.  
"You heard them. Stop him!"

"Excuse me?!"  
"Did I fucking stutter? He is doing this shit because of you! So, stop him!"  
That was unbelievable. She was so not responsible for this stupid pirate. WHY should she stop him?  
It was not her fault that he was causing ruckus in her name!  
"GO! I don't want to see you again until you stop him."

* * *

Tracking down Roronoa had been easy, he was causing enough chaos to leave a good enough trace. So, when Tashigi arrived on Baxfail Island she was already able to hear an ongoing fight.

She started sprinting and ran through the streets. Fortunately, Baxfail was a small island and shortly after arriving Tashigi found him. Roronoa Zoro. Fighting his way through a bunch of criminals, with such an elegance and determination it was almost hypnotizing. Almost.

The longer she watched him, the angrier she got. How could he dare to cause so much chaos? On her behalf! Did he really think that was what she had wanted him to do? Raiding islands, fighting dirty criminals just for revenge?! She thought he knew her better by now.

Tashigi tightened her grip on Shigure as anger rushed trough her. It took only three wide steps and she had reached him; lifting Shigure she brought one of his swords to an abrupt hold. It took all her strength to not loose her grip, but she could already feel his pressure weakening.

Suddenly he looked up at her, eye wide.  
"What the fuck are you doing?", she hissed at him.  
He looked at her for one second longer, then he dropped his swords and took her face in his hands.  
What the heck was going on?  
Why was he touching her?  
And was he always dropping his swords like that?

Irritated she looked at him.  
Just a moment ago he was furiously fighting and now he was… gazing at her… softly?  
"You are alive," he whispered and before she even could think about an answer he leaned in.

Tashigi widened her eyes as she felt the choppy lips of nonother than Roronoa Zoro on her lips.  
What the…  
She did not know what to do. Should she slap him? Stop him? Return the kiss?  
Wow, where did that come from? There was no returning of kisses from a pirate!

When Zoro finally ended the kiss, he looked at her with the softest look in his eye.  
"You are alive," he said again.  
"Eh… yes, I am," she just answered. Still not quite sure what was going on right now.  
Suddenly his gaze hardened, same with his touch on her face.  
"You. Are. Alive."  
Tashigi was tempted to roll her eyes but something in Zoro's vibe told her better not to do it.  
"And you are repeating yourself," she answered instead.

It was such an absurd situation they were in.  
Standing in the middle of the street. In front of the favorite bar of most of the criminals on this island.  
Zoro's hands were still on her face and he was starring at her like she was the one beating up hundreds of criminals in the last few weeks. His swords were still lying on the ground like he had forgotten about them. Not a nice way of treating them, Tashigi thought.

"But you died. The newspaper said you fall down fucking stairs. And Smoker… Smoker said he got you cremated."  
Uneasy Tashigi looked up and down the street. Most of the men and women Zoro was fighting were still lying unconscious on the floor, the last two standing were looking at them as if they've gone completely nuts.  
"Maybe… we should go and talk somewhere else," she said.

But Zoro did not seem to like it.  
"Why are you not dead?", he demanded to know.  
Tashigi narrowed her eyes at him.  
"Would you prefer if I were dead?", she snapped.  
Shocked Zoro took a step back, finally releasing her face.  
"No… I… that is not what I meant," he stumbled looking at her like a deer in headlights.  
If she hadn't been mad at him, because of the things he had done, she would feel sorry for him. Maybe.

But he messed up big time and definitely did not deserved pity.  
"What did you mean then?", she asked putting Shigure back in its sheath.  
Zoro avoided looking at her by picking up his swords.  
"I really thought you were dead," he murmured and Tashigi felt how her anger subsided.  
He almost looked like an lost puppy standing there a feet away, looking guilty and avoiding to look at her.

She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed heavily. What world was she living in?  
"I was undercover, you idiot!", she then proceeded to say.  
Zoro's head snapped up and he starred at her, mouth wide open.  
"Undercover?"  
Rubbing away the frown on her forehead she just nodded.  
"Why?"

Crossing her arms under her breasts she looked at him sternly.  
"We never wanted Kaito Akuno, he was always just a blender. A little boy who always pretended to be a big one, but as soon as he messed something up, he would always run back to daddy. And his daddy was who we wanted to capture."  
Zoro hang on her every word with wide eyes and anticipating.  
"So, when I tripped while chasing him, it opened the perfect opportunity. We knew that Kaito would run directly to his father, when he thought a Navy Captain died while chasing him down."

"So you were not hurt?", Zoro asked.  
She was not able to suppress another sigh escaping her lips.  
"I sprayed my ankle, but that was it."  
"And what about that guy you wanted to capture? Did you do it?"  
"We almost didn't, because someone decided to go all psycho on every criminal in this world!"  
Tashigi was satisfied to see Zoro flinch at her words.  
"But we arrested him and Kaito two days ago."  
"Good."  
"You freaking out did not help, mind you."

Zoro took a step towards her, grabbed her hand and interlaced their fingers. Tashigi was surprised but she did not pull back. The expression in Zoro's eye was so sincere, she could not bring herself to do it.  
"I apologize," he said, knocking their foreheads together. "But I really thought I lost you."  
She did not know what to say, she did not know what he was doing, she did not know why he went all crazy after reading about her faked death and she did not know why she did not feel uncomfortable being so close to him.

"Go home. Your job is done," she whispered after some time.  
Tashigi had closed her eyes, not trusting herself with her actions if she had looked into his eye for a second longer.  
"You're not going to arrest me?", he asked also whispering.  
She shook her head.  
"The order was to stop you."  
"And you stopped me."  
"I did."

She felt him squeezing her hand once more and then he broke away.  
Tashigi opened her eyes and watched him walking down the street, although she could not stop herself from saying:  
"Zoro… the kiss…?"

He turned around and his typical grin was back on his face. She did not expect him to come back, rather expected some mocking words.  
But he once again took her face in his hands and kissed her.  
Softer than the first one. With so much more emotion and there was no way for her to stop her heart from pounding loudly in her chest.  
Her eyes fell shout and Zoro deepened the kiss even more.

When they finally broke apart, they were both breathing heavily. There was once again this soft look in Zoro's eye.  
"I am really happy that you are still alive, Tashigi."  
She looked at him with wide eyes, that was the first time ever that he used her name.  
"Stay away from stairs, though."  
Tashigi couldn't help but laugh.


End file.
